When the world wearies and society fails to satisfy, there is always the garden. – Minnie Aumonier, painter (1865-1952)
Gardeners tend to be the most adaptable of human beings. In fact, gardening…trains you to be flexible…so the poppies never came up and the deer ate the roses, well, the irises looked great and the lilacs were fabulous. – Constance Casey, Mindfulness Coach
As I write this it’s been another beautiful sunny day. The weather report said rain would pass through, but it never happened. Now that temperatures have been rising to the 80s, I thought it time to bring out the greenhouse plants. A few I brought over to the house porches, but the others I scattered around the perennial garden. What we call the perennial garden is confined by a weathered picket fence and is just outside the door of the greenhouse. We discontinued planting and moving plants all over the yard when we learned the hard way deer and other critters would eat them for dinner. That got old after a while, and we got older so planting in pots and moving them a shorter distance from the greenhouse worked out just fine.
Also in the perennial garden is the goldfish pond. The goldfish share the pond with one small frog and so far, it’s worked out. Lily pads are sprouting so it seems a fine place for a frog. The goldfish feed heartily and seem to grow bigger by the day. They are getting a little more used to me and will allow me to watch while they dart here and there. The cats, Harry and Wilhelmina, are fascinated but won’t go near the water.
Before moving or dragging all the potted plants out I made a list of every plant in the greenhouse. I can never remember which one needs sun, partial sun, sometimes sun, no sun, or complete shade. A plant may thrive in the sun’s warmth of the greenhouse but not survive in summer’s heat, so placement is important. From one angel wing begonia, three more have been propagated. They are lovely plants with a wing-shaped leaf and pink blooms under the wing. Geraniums love sun so I slipped them down to the dock on the little pond and placed them on a wooden homemade bench so I can see them from the gravel road when coming or going.
Most of the herbs, parsley, basil, dill, cilantro, enjoy sun with the exception of oregano and mojito mint that prefer some shade during the afternoon heat. Almost every other plant such as poinsettia, ornamental potato vines, amaryllis, pothos, spider plant, dianthus, our singular palm, likes either indirect light or partial shade. The perennial garden was probably once a farmer’s field so shade is mostly provided by the addition of fast-growing crepe myrtles, a large loropetalum, and the greenhouse itself.
There are lots of economical ways of creating a greenhouse, of course hardware, co-op, and home improvement stores carry a wide range of greenhouse kits. Our greenhouse started with a simple wood frame, a landscape timber knee wall; covered with discarded glass windows still in the frame. The framework of a discarded tent or canopy, castoff pipes or PVC pipes topped with a thick painter’s tarp can form a greenhouse. So, if you’re thinking about it, you’ve got a good six or seven months to get ready.
Shannon Bardwell is a writer living quietly in the Prairie. Email reaches her at [email protected].
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